V is for victory and Vermilion: Sailors girls snap drought at own meet; North Ridgeville claims boys title

VERMILION — No Vermilion boys or girls track team had won its own invitational since 2008.

With the regular season coming to a close, the Sailors wanted to do something special for their home fans for the last time.

The girls team did just that, piling up 150 points to dominate the nine-team field Friday night and win a rain-delayed Vermilion Invitational.

North Ridgeville was second (93) and Margaretta third (91) but the Sailors breezed, scoring in all but one event and getting some strong individual performances as well.

“It was a great day, and everyone contributed,” Vermilion girls coach Kristy Edmison said. “Our distance team finally stepped up and got big-time points for us. Our sprinters continue to do what they do. It was just a great day all the way across the board.

“If our girl didn’t drop out of the two-mile (3,200 run), we probably would have scored in every single event. I’m ecstatic.”

The North Ridgeville boys continued their excellent season, outlasting Mansfield Madison and Margaretta. The Rangers edged Madison 116-113, while Margaretta had 106.

The Vermilion boys finished fifth with 52½ points, but the excitement of the girls’ performance spread over to the boys side as well.

“The boys, actually, we were really pleased with,” Vermilion boys coach Dave Domonkos said. “They put up some of their best times of the season tonight and doing some PR-ing. We’ve got a really young group of boys, and every meet, they get better and better, so we’re really excited about that.”

Senior Emily Cunningham, who had missed a chunk of the season with a foot injury, competed in a full slate of events for the first time this season and won the 100 (12.52) and 200 dashes (25.87) and ran the anchor leg for the winning 400 (:50.24) and 800 relays (1:45.76).

“It was exciting, but I’m really tired,” said Cunningham, who was named the girls Most Valuable Performer. “Being in that boot for three weeks kind of scared me. I’m a little out of shape, but I think my times are improving a lot.”

Hannah Bartlome also ran key legs on those winning 400 and 800 relays, won the high jump by clearing 5-0 and took second in the long jump by a foot behind Margaretta’s Courtnee Ambos (15-3½).

“We really wanted to win this meet, because the Vermilion Invite has been traditionally difficult for us, but Lorain’s not here this year,” Bartlome said. “We wanted to pounce on this opportunity to get first place, and we wanted to show everyone here in our final home meet that Vermilion’s in it to win it.”

AuBree LaForce ran the anchor leg ion the winning 1,600 relay, which put the exclamation point on the Sailors’ dominance. She also ran in the 800 relay, took second in the 400 and finished third in the 100. Also for the Sailors, Abbey Bodeker won the 300 hurdles and Savannah Lowery took first in the discus.

“We haven’t won this in a long time, so this means a lot,” Edmison said. “I know this meant a lot to our seniors, because this was their final home meet ever. Anytime you can pull together an invitational win at home for your fans is tremendous.

“This was a big day for Vermilion, and it was good to be a part of it.”

On the boys side, Madison applied some heat by winning the 1,600 relay, but it wasn’t enough to overtake the Rangers, who won three events.

The 400 relay team of Christian Watkins, Paul Sonego, Zack Bowden and David Bowden set a meet record with a winning time of 43.39 seconds, besting the previous mark of 43.50, which was set in 2001 and matched in 2005.

“We had good handoffs, perfect handoffs, and we all ran very well.” said Zack Bowden, who also took second in the 200 in 26 seconds flat. “It was just a great performance all around, not just with our relay team, but from our team all around.”

Sonego won the 400 in a time of :50.17, while the 3,200 relay team of Isaiah Santiago, Brad Sundheimer, Tommy Sherfey and Matt Kretschmer easily won with a time of 8:43.95.

“We had a lot of good performances today,” North Ridgeville boys coach Lucky Varouh said. “Our 4-by-800 team started it off by doing a really nice job. Our distance people did a real nice job. Our sprinters did a real nice job.

“We came in second in the 4-by-200, but we were disqualified due to a uniform violation. That really hurt. But after something like that, you can either sulk or keep performing strong. Our guys brushed it off and kept it up, so I’m very proud of them.”